This webinar featured leaders from the Tobacco 21 and smokefree air movements to discuss how tobacco control policy strategies at the local level helped drive policy change across the country.
Assessing local policy change through case studies helps identify lessons learned and keys to success, which can help set the stage for state or national change. The Tobacco 21 and smokefree air movements are two examples of tobacco control policy strategies that have seen success at the local level in building support for wider initiatives.
In this second webinar of the Local Control webinar series on August 5, CADCA’s Geographic Health Equity Alliance (GHEA) and Counter Tools brought together leaders from these movements to share insights on how steadfast work at the local level helped to drive policy change across the country.
Watch the recording:
Speakers
Onjewel Smith
Southern States Strategist @American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation
Onjewel Smith has worked in the nonprofit sector for more than 20 years helping organizations and communities build their capacity for sustainable change. She has provided technical assistance on grassroots advocacy, coalition building, strategic planning, and fundraising. Throughout her career, Onjewel has helped develop strategic alliances between local coalitions, community-based organizations, stakeholders, and decision-makers. She currently serves as the Southern States Strategist to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.
Ginny Chadwick
Program Coordinator @University of Missouri
Ginny Chadwick, MPH, MA is Program Coordinator for the Missouri Eliminate Tobacco Use Initiative at the University of Missouri where she works around the state to improve tobacco policy, prevention and cessation services on college campuses and in hospital systems. Since 2013, Chadwick has worked on sales restriction laws for tobacco products. She has written ordinances and statues and contributed to the national model language. Her research includes age of sale, penalty structures, decriminalization of purchase, use and possession, and preemption of local laws. Chadwick was the legislative sponsor for one of the first Tobacco 21 policies to pass locally, and the first in her home state of Missouri. She worked across the nation at a local, state and federal level to help build coalitions, identify legislative champions and successfully pass policy. Chadwick received her MPH and MA in Journalism at the University of Missouri and is currently working on a PhD at at Brandeis University.
Local Control webinar series
CADCA’s Geographic Health Equity Alliance, in collaboration with Counter Tools hosted a three-part webinar series to equip attendees with an understanding of why local policy solutions are important, lessons learned from local policy implementation efforts and innovative policy strategies built at the local-level.
Webinar 1: Building the Rationale for Local Policy Change. Speakers provided a broad rationale for local-level policy efforts and the implications for public health, as well as insight on strategies that have proven successful for local policy implementation.
Webinar 2: Using Local Momentum to Drive State and Federal Policy Change. This webinar featured leaders from the Tobacco 21 and smokefree air movements to discuss how tobacco control policy strategies at the local level helped drive policy change across the country.
Webinar 3: Innovative Local Solutions in Public Health. The third webinar in the series covered local-level policy solutions in Maryland and California. These efforts advanced policies relating to alcohol and healthy food.
